Social network diagram. Credit: Daniel Tenerife/Wikipedia (Phys.org)—A trio of math and computer scientists has developed a means for developing generalized frameworks that allow for clustering networks based on higher-order connectivity patterns. In their paper published in the journal Science, Austin Benson and Jure Leskovec with Stanford University and David Gleich with Purdue University outline their…
Justin Boyer is rock climbing with a rope in Parley’s Canyon near Salt Lake City. In what began as Boyer’s mathematical modeling class project, he and three other University of Utah mathematicians have published a study showing the mathematical possibility of designing a climbing rope that would apply a constant force to a falling climber,…
Romanesco broccoli is likely one of the most classic representations of fractals in nature as its buds spiral in a strikingly elegant self-similar pattern. Credit: Jon Sullivan via Wikipedia When Harry Potter first went to Hogwarts, he caught his train from Kings Cross, platform 9¾. The idea of a platform between two whole numbers might…
“Creating a sensible subset of spectra to start an in-depth analysis of unidentified spectra has been very challenging,” says Juan Antonio Vizcaino of EMBL-EBI. Credit: Spencer Phillips, EMBL-EBI A new algorithm clusters the millions of peptide mass spectra in the PRIDE Archive public database, making it easier to detect millions of consistently unidentified spectra across…
Common statistical methods used to analyse brain activity through images taken with MRI scanners cannot be trusted, as shown by Anders Eklund and Hans Knutsson of Linköping University, and Thomas Nichols of the University of Warwick, in the highly-ranked journal PNAS. LiU Reader Eklund who works at the Department of Computer and Information Science and…
Convinced that better use of data will improve research, innovation and literacy across other disciplines, six leading statisticians recently published “Ten Simple Rules for Effective Statistical Practice” in the journal PLOS Computational Biology. Part of the popular open access “Ten Simple Rules (TSR)” series, this piece surpassed 51,000 views in only two weeks. Authors Nancy…
A common problem with some scientific research, particularly projects studying human health, is that it is often difficult, if not impossible, to prove that a specific action directly causes an effect. For example, scientists have found that those who smoke cigarettes also are more likely to suffer from depression. However, scientists cannot uniquely determine whether…
Under growing pressure to report accurate findings as they interpret increasingly larger amounts of data, researchers are finding it more important than ever to follow sound statistical practices. For that reason, a team of statisticians including Carnegie Mellon University’s Robert E. Kass wrote “Ten Simple Rules for Effective Statistical Practice.” Published in PLOS Computational Biology…
Hello guzzlers, To celebrate Andy Murray’s triumph at Queen’s yesterday, and in anticipation of Wimbledon, which starts next week, lets smash some neurons around the grass court of your brains. The men’s (and women’s) singles event at Wimbledon is a knockout tournament with 128 players. Without doing any arithmetic – i.e adding up the number…
Statistics are everywhere – from Brexit to Britain’s Got Talent. The way these numbers are presented – or manipulated – shape our understanding of the world. Just this month, a misleading representation of data on local elections caused a furore after being shared widely on Facebook. It’s important to equip your students with the skills…